


Lazarus Effect

by lunchgroup



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: M/M, Rating May Change, Restoration AU, retired hank
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-10
Updated: 2019-08-28
Packaged: 2019-10-25 13:55:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,951
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17726495
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lunchgroup/pseuds/lunchgroup
Summary: "Handy" Hank Anderson is a retired android crimes taskforce lieutenant. He now dedicates his time to restoring all things android for a modest number of youtube followers. One day, he's given a tip that leads into a new, constantly surprising project.





	1. Android Restoration Project: Part 1

**Author's Note:**

> I went on a restoration-channel youtube spiral the other night and absolutely had to make it hankco-related. Shoutout to [8-bit Guy](https://www.youtube.com/user/adric22/) for the inspiration, go check him out!

“Hey everyone, HandyHank85 here!” the video opens on a silver-haired, middle-aged man, sitting on a couch behind a coffee table. He's wearing a shirt that reads "You turn my floppy disk into a hard drive." A little risqué for his channel, but it was a gift from a viewer. His hands rest on top of his knees, and he leans forward with excitement. “I have a really special video for you this week, and I’m super excited to show you what I’ve been working on.” He smiles, and the camera picks up a small gap between his front teeth. “Unfortunately, there were some surprises and complications near the end, so I had to cut it off early. I’m currently recording part 2 of this series, and I honestly don’t know how long this entire thing will take. But I think that’s what will make it more exciting. I hope you enjoy this introduction, and I’ll be back again next Thursday!”

The shot cuts to the same man, holding a camera to himself, walking up a driveway at sunset. “Hello, Handy Hank here with something super exciting today,” his eyes sparkle into the lens and his shaggy hair flutters with the speed he’s walking. The tooth-gap reappears. “My more avid viewers might remember that I mentioned a while ago about a possible project lead and I'm happy to say it played out _very_ well.” He shakily turns the camera away from himself to unlock his door, and a giant dog appears into the frame. Hank records as he greets the excited dog, tousles his fur a bit, and fills his bowl, praising “good boy, Sumo,” as he goes. He doesn’t pretend not to notice the videos with his beloved dog get more views, and plays into it shamelessly.

Once that’s taken care of, the video goes to another new shot, of Hank in his workshop. He’s standing, adjusting the camera, before walking back to reveal the object he’s so excited about. It lies atop his work table, nearly hanging off the end, covered in painter’s cloth for dramatic effect. “This afternoon I was tipped off to an undisclosed location where I was told I’d find ‘something worth making a video of.’ They were absolutely right. I was able to find-” Hank flips the cloth down to expose a human-like head and torso, “an _entire_ android!” He throws his hands to his sides in exasperation.

A quick overview of the body shows the android idle, eyes closed, remaining undisturbed by the showmanship. Its visible body is equal parts plastic and skin, with obvious signs of damage. Some of it goes deep enough to reveal wiring and circuitry, but it is, for all intents and purposes, complete.

Hank reappears in the frame. “Now I can’t say exactly how or where I found this because I'm pretty sure it wasn’t all legal, but to those of you who helped -you know who you are- thank you so much. I owe you big time. Alright, everyone’s probably skipping over this part anyway, so I'll get right to it.” The camera cuts again to a top-down shot of the head and upper chest. It’s placid, surrounded by tools and cleaning solvents. The entire face is a dirty pearlescent white, fading into tan around the neck. Were it not for a gash running down its right cheek to chin and the missing skin, the android would appear exactly as a sleeping human.

Hank’s arms appear from the right side, gloved hands gesticulating as he speaks, “I’ve decided to clean it up a bit before I crack it open, because I don’t want to track any dirt inside. Also because I don’t know where this thing’s been. And I love making you all wait.” A small chuckle is audible to anyone who turns up the volume enough. He sprays one of the towels with a solution Hank refuses to disclose, but its blue color gives itself away as glass cleaner. “This is just a top coat I'm using, as more powerful solvents may damage the chassis,” he explains as he starts working the towel on the subject’s head. It begins to shine even more than before, reflecting the camera above it.

Hank is careful to cover all parts of the head and face, even more careful not to disturb the gash. He then uses q-tips and cotton balls to gently clean smaller areas. Once satisfied, the footage fast-forwards through him doing the same to the neck and shoulders. A few spots of dirt seem more stubborn than others. After a couple of minutes of intense scrubbing, Hank realizes -with a smile- that they’re freckles. He simply shakes his head and continues. He goes back with rubbing alcohol to scrub off more superficial scuffs and stains, then the video goes back to normal speed. “I wasn't able to find a model number where one would usually be," he taps the blank skin above where a human heart would be, "so I'll have to do more research into this one. But I think it’s clean enough for now. I just really wanna get inside it-” his voice catches and he coughs, “its brain.” Tearing off the gloves, Hank makes a soon-forgotten note to edit out the slip later.

The next shot shows the android laying prone, the camera zoomed in to frame the back of its head. A rolled-up towel surrounds the head to keep it from moving around. The damage to its skin has spread back here, so the android is devoid of any hair. “Now, even though the chassis has these lines running all over,” Hank runs a fingertip along one said line, “it is watertight and seamless. Meaning I’d either have to _pry_ apart one of these panels to access the brain, _or_...!” He jams his left thumb at the bottom of its skull, and grips the spaces behind its ears with his large right hand. It takes a firm wiggle, but soon a small gap outlines its head. Hank delicately lifts the bowl-shaped cap, exposing the contents inside. Hank is immediately impressed, making it evident with a low whistle.

“Before I get into the juicy stuff, the thing I wanna talk first about is this skull cap,” he flips it in his hand, and the next shot is zoomed in even closer. “Inside are these little pins,” he indicates with a small screwdriver, “this is actually a pretty basic circuit board, and the pins connect the different parts of the brain together so they can talk to each other. Think of them as thousands of little corpus callosums… _Callosi?_... Brain bridges, you know.” Another quiet chuckle. “Anyway, I’m pretty surprised this model still uses metals; most ones today use fiber optics. This one looks like it’s in pretty good shape; some are are a little bent but that shouldn’t be a problem. I’ll fix them anyway ‘cause it’s not that hard.” He sets the cap aside and refocuses the camera on the brain.

Normally bright and flowing with activity, this brain is dark, with no signs of life. It resembles a large, translucent jellybean full of viscous matter. Various shots show off all its angles. Hank’s voiceover plays with the footage, “I don’t want to spoil you all, but here’s where things start getting weird. The fact that a seemingly advanced model still uses metal circuits wasn’t even the half of it.”

Back to the top-down view, Hanks voice starts again from the side, “You’ll notice that android brains aren’t wrinkled like ours. This is because while our wrinkles maximize surface area so we can hold more things, the shorter a circuit is in these brains, the faster data can travel. Since androids run off the cloud, they don’t require storage other than immediate processing.” Once Hank is satisfied with the footage he’s gotten, he moves to take the brain out. 

As soon as he touches it, however, bright blue patches spark where his fingers make contact. Hank makes an undignified yell and jerks his hands back, as if shocked. “What the _hell_?” He prods the brain with his pointer finger, and the effect repeats. The glow follows wherever his finger traces, like a plasma globe. “It,” he starts, slowly, “it doesn’t _hurt_ … But there’s definitely a charge here… I promise I’ve grounded both myself and the android.” He attempts to pick it up again, but the charge quickly becomes too uncomfortable to continue. He lets go of the brain, and it rattles back into place.

Hank sits back in his chair, running a hand through his hair. He’s stopped recording for the moment. If anything terrible happens to him or the android, he doesn’t want it on film. Obviously, he has to keep going. He has to take out the brain at some point to make sure there’s no damage. But he’s afraid that if he keeps touching it, the electricity will damage the android. Or himself. He’s half tempted to connect grounding wires directly to the brain, but that may drain whatever residual energy the android has left, effectively killing it.

Hank decides the safest option for now is to fix the skull cap pins and reconnect it, as he can’t see any damage to the brain so far. He’ll do some research, and come back to that component in a later video. He resumes recording, and explains his plan to the camera.

The skull cap repair and replacement goes off without a hitch. The last few minutes of his video is fast-forwarded footage of him cleaning the rest of the android. Hank talks in his voiceover of plans to buy thirium and replacement wires to tackle the circulatory system in the next video. He then explains some of the damage or theories of why the brain did what it did. But he soon wraps it up by telling viewers, “like and subscribe to my channel, and I’ll see you next Thursday!” He finally stops recording, and flops into a nearby armchair, exhausted. 

The android in front of him is sparkling clean and ready for whatever’s next. Hank wishes he could tell it that it’s going to be okay. Hank loves restoring things, not just for the small following he’s earned, but because of the satisfaction that comes with an honest job well done. Plus, if he does this right, he’ll have essentially brought a being back to life. The prospect of that is enough to make him want to keep working. Hank grabs a water bottle from a small cooler he’d brought with him, continuing to regard the android in between sips. He checks a clock hanging on a wall, and it reads after 10pm. Before he knows it, his eyes are drooping with the combined fatigue of his labor, plus the lateness of the hour.

His armchair too comfortable and his bed too far, he eventually dozes off.

He dreams in blue.


	2. Chapter 2

Hank wakes up and squints against the fluorescent shop lights. This isn’t the first time he’s found himself waking up here, but it’s never any more pleasant or comfortable. Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, he checks the time. Five in the morning. He decides it’s better to either eat or go to bed than stay in the armchair much longer. Hank startles a bit when he glimpses the body on his table. He’d forgotten to cover it up after working on it. He stands up with a groan and a stretch, and goes to flip off the lights. He stops mid-stride, turning around to replace the painter’s cloth over the body. No reason to get dust and dirt over his now-clean android. As he’s pulling up the tarp, he takes a last look at the face. It’s quite scientifically beautiful; near-perfect symmetry, ideal proportions, high cheekbones, a smattering of freckles, the works. Cyberlife must have really liked this one.

Then a thought strikes Hank. Its eyes have been closed the entire time he’s had it. He has no idea what color its eyes are. Or even if it _has_ eye color. While Hank knows he should save this investigation for a video, he can’t help but have this moment to himself. He gently drags a finger over both of its eyelids, heart speeding up. They’re gorgeous. A deep hazelnut, flecked with gold and black. Hank clicks on a penlight and holds it in his mouth. Deep within its eyes, he can see the apertures that functions as the pupils. Its eyes are dilated enough that he can almost study the back wall of the eyes. The metal inside is slightly reflective.

Hank could swear he sees the pupils twitch. He freezes. Flicking the pen light from eye to eye, he tries to recreate the reflex. But nothing more happens. After a few moments of motionless scrutiny, Hank decides that his tired brain simply imagined it. He closes its eyes back up again and finally pulls the cloth back up. He flicks off the lights, and kicks off his boots once he’s back in his house. 

Sumo grunts from his bed in the living room. Hank decides that trying to get back to sleep would be a lost cause, so he grabs a pint of ice cream and settles onto his couch. Sumo trots over to lay on his feet while he channel surfs. Nothing good is on at this hour. Then he remembers that he wanted to do some research about his new project So he grabs his laptop from the coffee table and opens it. He scratches his beard for moment, trying to figure out where to start.

Even though he’s about as close to an android expert as a non-Cyberlife-employee could be, Hank looks over a sheet listing all of the models and their functions. From garbage collectors, to receptionists, to less-savory functions, Hank can’t find any models or body iterations that resemble the one in his workshop. It is possible that the android was custom-made. However, if that is the case, he’d have to go looking through its code to figure out what it was built for. Which would be a pain. But Hank reminds himself that this is an _entire android_ that he barely had to pay anything for, and, should he decide to sell if later, would make him quite the pretty penny.

Hank doesn’t pretend that all of his work is out of the goodness of his own heart. Sure, he loves what he does, and will continue doing it as long as he’s able. But androids and their components aren’t cheap to find or restore, so selling them back is usually in Hank’s best interest. This also helps cut down on clutter lying around his shop, which has a habit of leaking into his house. He does have a few things he keeps, such as the first thiriup pump he ever fixed, a limited-release brain that he was able to trade from a friend, and other trophies. But living on a retirement pension is something of a balancing act, and he wants to be able to help pay Cole’s college tuition. So he sells things.

Idly tapping his fingers on the keyboard, Hank decides to begin looking into android models that are still in the works. However, most of the in-progress models are larger and more rugged, as they’re part of the recent contract with the military. None of them have the slender figure of his android. So he tries to dig for unreleased prototypes. Most of them are awkward, archaic first-attempts at androids that will never be made or finished. There are a few from corporate customers who later cancelled their orders, some bold ideas of non-humanoid models, and various other odds and ends. By the time Hank reaches the blueprints for biocomponents, he’s decided this is also a dead end.

Sighing, Hank can really only think of one more route at the moment. It’s undesirable, but it will probably get him farther than these fruitless internet searches. He pulls up his email, and starts composing a message to one of his former coworkers at the android crimes taskforce.

 

_ Hey, it’s Hank. _

_ I picked up this bot the other day and have no idea where it came from. It’s got no serial number and doesn’t match anything in the catalogue. If you have some extra time between jerking off, I’d appreciate if you ask around about it. You owe me. _

_Attached: android_1.png, android_2.png_

 

In the “to” line, Hank reluctantly taps in _g.reed@dpd.net_. His insufferable asshole of a partner was promoted to lieutenant in practically the same breath that Fowler ended Hank’s retirement speech with. As much as Hank claims that it was because they couldn’t find anyone in the state more qualified, he internally admits that the kid is on his way. He just wishes the way was a bit faster. Or less annoying. Or whatever. He sends the email off.

It’s a Friday, which means it’s edit day. He usually edits his videos as soon as possible, since he reserves weekends for Cole. Sure, there’s the rest of the week, but it’s nice to not have it hanging over his head. The constant stream of output and feedback is a nice replacement for the work schedule he’s had for so long. If only his body would get the idea and let him sleep in past 5 AM. 

He pops the camera’s SD card into his laptop and begins transferring the footage. Once it’s saved, he sends it over to the editing software. He cuts out bits of him adjusting the focus or moving the camera around. This part is fairly mindless, and he gets engrossed quickly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks everyone for being so patient for updates! i kinda avoided working on this chapter because it Wasn't Perfect, but i just sucked it up and posted it. thanks for my boyf for bringing it back to my consciousness, lol

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading, find me on horny twitjer [@lunchgroupew](https://twitter.com/lunchgroupew)!


End file.
